Feature request to improve studio panels on desktop

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, TonyO said:

Publisher doesn't support infinite canvas or artboards

Yes, it does. 

You're right that it doesn't have all the functions of Photo or Designer, but for many purposes it's a great environment.

[TonyO]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If you start in the Designer Persona you'll find that File > New includes the option to create an Artboard. It will be active if you turn off Default Master.

Additionally, which I overlooked before, if you have a document which contains only one page, and no Masters, you can use the Artboard Tool in the Designer Persona to add an Artboard. 

 

OH! look at that, learn something new every day! My mistake, haha. 

I guess to that end though, once I'm in designer persona and using artboards and infinite pasteboard... what is the point of using Publisher? I guess if you want some of the photo editing capabilities, but once pages are removed from the equation, there's not much use for publisher features are there? The standalone designer app feels quicker and more responsive. 

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, TonyO said:

I guess to that end though, once I'm in designer persona and using artboards and infinite pasteboard... what is the point of using Publisher?

Mainly text-related functions, such as Linked Text Frames, Hyphenation, Find and Replace, Font Manager, Pinning, Columns in Text Frames, ....

But also, the Photo Persona offers more capabilities than Designer's Pixel Persona.

[Bryan Rieger]

8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

If you start in the Designer Persona you'll find that File > New includes the option to create an Artboard. It will be active if you turn off Default Master.

Additionally, which I overlooked before, if you have a document which contains only one page, and no Masters, you can use the Artboard Tool in the Designer Persona to add an Artboard. 

 

Huh, I would never have guessed that I could select 'create artboard' by deselecting 'default master' as they're not necessarily linked conceptually in any way.
I'm sure it's in the docs, but as it is implemented it's not at all intuitive.

[Pšenda]

3 minutes ago, TonyO said:

what is the point of using Publisher?

3 hours ago, TonyO said:

Then on the smaller panel i would keep text tools

I got the impression from your posts that you use all elements in your work, not just purely drawing, not just purely photo, not just purely text - for which, of course, work in specific applications is easier. However, if you use text and pixel tools in ADesigner, I think it is more convenient to use APublisher (because it can do almost everything that ADesigner does), and switch to the appropriate Persona as needed.

[TonyO]

Just now, rgba said:

Huh, I would never have guessed that I could select 'create artboard' by deselecting 'default master' as they're not necessarily linked conceptually in any way.
I'm sure it's in the docs, but as it is implemented it's not at all intuitive.

Likely because the devs assume that if you're working in an artboard based workspace you'll probably want to use Designer, and obscuring that feature is likely intentional, who knows, haha. 

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, rgba said:

Huh, I would never have guessed that I could select 'create artboard' by deselecting 'default master' as they're not necessarily linked conceptually in any way.
I'm sure it's in the docs, but as it is implemented it's not at all intuitive.

A document may contain one of the following: 

. A Canvas

. One or more Artboards

. One or more Pages (including any Master Pages).

And since you can't have a document with a Master Page and 0 document pages, if you have a Master Page (which Default Master provides) it won't let you create an Artboard when creating the document.

[Pšenda]

2 minutes ago, rgba said:

Huh, I would never have guessed that I could select 'create artboard' by deselecting 'default master' as they're not necessarily linked conceptually in any way.
I'm sure it's in the docs, but as it is implemented it's not at all intuitive.

If you open a file from ADesigner in APublisher, after switching to the Designer persona, the Artboard Tool is available (as in ADesigner), with which artboards can be created and added as well.

[Bryan Rieger]

7 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

A document may contain one of the following: 

. A Canvas

. One or more Artboards

. One or more Pages (including any Master Pages).

And since you can't have a document with a Master Page and 0 document pages, if you have a Master Page (which Default Master provides) it won't let you create an Artboard when creating the document.

Yeah, but that puts all of the cognitive load on the user to know this already, rather than actually helping them in situ. 

[deeds]

I don't know why they do it, but there's a seemingly core unit of forum users that seek to diminish and/or discredit the need/desire/usefulness of any suggestions of possible improvements to the Affinity software, no matter how objectively obvious a feature request or suggestion's benefits are. They'll pick on anything they can to do this. It's so obvious a pattern of behaviour, so dogged and determined that their temerity is somewhat shocking.

Especially given that @TonyO is quite obviously a high value professional user with a need for the feature fluency, speed and stability of Designer (which he's seemingly happy with). In none of these areas is it fair to consider Publisher to be anywhere near close to Designer. Especially when it comes to stability with that much going on - which is probably in his top ten criteria.

And there's significant reductions in performance and functionality when attempting to pretend that Publisher is Designer.

This suggestion is merely the addition of something that's in the iPad app, and become somewhat of a staple within all sorts of creative apps from all sorts of industries.

And a very good idea, I think, especially considering what we can all probably agree on with regards the stability of Publisher...

 

 

 

 

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, deeds said:

I don't know why they do it, but there's a seemingly core unit of forum users that seek to diminish and/or discredit the need/desire/usefulness of any suggestions of possible improvements to the Affinity software, no matter how objectively obvious a feature request or suggestion's benefits are. They'll pick on anything they can to do this. It's so obvious a pattern of behaviour, so dogged and determined that their temerity is somewhat shocking.

As far as I could notice, no one is trying to "discredit" the request stated here. The request has been made, and it is up to Serif (no matter what anyone writes here) when and if they will implement it at all. Since the implementation of the request will obviously take some time (there are far more important and for most users more beneficial requests that have been waiting for many years), so for the OP or other users of this discussion forum with a similar problem, an alternative to using Person in APublisher, with which you can easily switch the work environment and modify the layout of the panels, was presented here. And it is only up to the OPs/users if they will somehow use this information, or if they will put up with the existing application options while waiting for the implementation of the said request.

 

P.S. I think even for such a high value professional user this discussion was useful - you're welcome

2 hours ago, TonyO said:

OH! look at that, learn something new every day!

 

[Cuando]

15 hours ago, deeds said:

I don't know why they do it, but there's a seemingly core unit of forum users that seek to diminish and/or discredit the need/desire/usefulness of any suggestions of possible improvements to the Affinity software, no matter how objectively obvious a feature request or suggestion's benefits are. They'll pick on anything they can to do this. It's so obvious a pattern of behaviour, so dogged and determined that their temerity is somewhat shocking.

I absolutely agree, I also have the same feeling.

On the other hand, this implementation in the interface seems basic and necessary to me.

 

[Eusebiu Oprinoiu]

I also vote for this feature request.
I wanted this for a very long time and it was one of my most desired interface upgrades for V2. (which unfortunately wasn't implemented)
I think the option to customize the interface with flyout panels would be a big upgrade in terms of usability and customizability, especially on smaller screens.
I work primarily on a laptop and using only 1 column of panels feels restrictive. (I know we can be display them in multiple columns side by side, but than we loose a third of the screen)